State of the industry: a running thread

[jonnyboy666]

invalidate your warranty.

 

[Guinessisgoodforyou]

 

[CassidyAce]

But if you get a puncture 25 miles from a dealer network what are you supposed to do?

Thank your lucky stars that you have never bought a Giant. That's the logical conclusion: don't buy their bikes in the first place.

 

[novocaine]

@Sir Neil d'Menture yes, crazy isn't it, their logic is that their bikes should only be worked on by Giant dealers, which i sort of get as it means their brand is sold through one dealer network and then ideally it drives the maintenance back to the dealer network, which means that dealer network should be able to rely on on going income on that brand. but that's not how the world works, sometimes people have a favourite mechanic but they happen to like a brand that isn't by the shop that mechanic works in so they buy the bike they want then get it service by their preferred mechanic, it shouldn't void warranty at all, Giant would say they are trying to protect their brand and their dealer network but frankly it's just BS

The car world tried this. Its why we now have laws against restrictive practice. BMW were some if the worst for it.

 

[legrandefromage]

The car world tried this. Its why we now have laws against restrictive practice. BMW were some if the worst for it.

In name only. Reality is that I have one hand sometimes both tied behind my back by the car brands,

I can code many new parts to a vehicle but the majority are main dealer only as the software isn't available or is prohibitively expensive

 

[novocaine]

In name only. Reality is that I have one hand sometimes both tied behind my back by the car brands,

I can code many new parts to a vehicle but the majority are main dealer only as the software isn't available or is prohibitively expensive

Better one hand than not being able to at all. But agree, still don't make it easy.

 

[greencat]

But if you get a puncture 25 miles from a dealer network what are you supposed to do?

Bin the bike, and take a taxi to your nearest Giant dealer for a new one.

 

[Roasted]

Very interesting thread.

On Isla bikes. I'm not surprised they maybe struggling. They're very expensive for what they are and aimed at middle class families that are too good for Halfords but know nothing about bikes. The parts used are at the lower end of the market, even unbranded, but the quality of the frames is quite high. I did look at them for my kids but couldn't justify £600 on a fully rigid v-braked 7 speed gripshift (shudder) bike. Why spend that much when you could get a Hope academy bike dripping with premium parts for £29 a month.

I'm quite sad about CRC. They've been really good in the past but have noticed a change since they merger with Wiggle. It seemes that they lost their identity, CRC were more MTB focused and Wiggle road bike. But they became the same thing with the same website, then the range of bikes started to get smaller with their own brands being pushed more. I hope that it can be saved and without any further watering down of the brands.

 

[Lucidone]

On Isla bikes. I'm not surprised they maybe struggling. They're very expensive for what they are and aimed at middle class families that are too good for Halfords but know nothing about bikes. The parts used are at the lower end of the market, even unbranded, but the quality of the frames is quite high. I did look at them for my kids but couldn't justify £600 on a fully rigid v-braked 7 speed gripshift (shudder) bike. Why spend that much when you could get a Hope academy bike dripping with premium parts for £29 a month.

Yes, they are expensive. Yes, an aspirational brand. Yes, some budget (but fit for purpose) parts, however, having owned 6 of them they have some good things going for them too:
Properly (proportionally) sized components
Light weight
Durable
Sensible tyres
Everything works well and is serviceable
Full spares available and reasonable cost
And the very best thing about them....
Resale value. Through a combination of buying new and secondhand / properly caring for the bikes / Islabikes RRP Increases / a good advert when selling we've had 7 years of (minty) Islabikes in every size (upto 27.5) for less than £450 pounds investment. Even buying reasonable quality secondhand bikes and doing quite a bit of work I don't think it would be easy to beat that. We're definitely not middle class and often the Islabike of the time was the most valuable bike in the household.

All I can say is they made a lot of sense for us and made cycling easy and fun for our son.

Finally, thinking I knew better (again!) I even swapped the X-4 Gripshift for a trigger shifter on one bike and was soon requested to revert back. Fortunately early gripshift exposure has caused no long term harm and he's now following the righteous path of XT and SLX!

Apologies for the thread drift but just wanted to add a counterpoint.

 

[Roasted]

Apologies for the thread drift

Don't think it drifted too far. It's all about struggling companies.

I stuck to new and second hand apollo's and pendleton for my kids. Kids bikes are only used for a few years the second hand market is flooded with near mint bikes for about £50 so was a good way to save a few pennies.

Now my daughter is 12 she has a Kona Queen Kikapu that cost a massive £150. And my son will be 10 in March so I've got him a Kona Coiler, which was an eye watering £100.

The issue Isla bikes are facing is many middle-premium manufacturers are doing really nice children's bikes aimed at specific disciplines. The ongoing financial crisis has shurnk the market they're aimed at. And with the new longer, lower, slacker trend the older small adults bikes are similar in size to larger kids bikes.